Historical Rubble, Contemporary Goat

My intention was to present an image on the edge of metaphor, that looked as though its true meaning might be something other than the rural poetry of a goat and some colourful rubble, yet remains fairly normal. It is not a scene you would encounter every day but you would not bat an eyelid if you did.

The goat looks at and engages us. Were it human we might say it bore a wistful look, and it is this anthropomorphism with which I was keen to experiment. A human figure in a painting can prevent a viewer from fully imagining themselves in the scene. I wondered if a goat may not be such an obstacle.

My aim is to make pictures quirky or sinister enough for the painting not be assumed to be hobbyist or landscape painting that relies on capturing the awe of the terrain but that also runs that risk on account of its formal appearance. It is rendered in a style that owes a debt to the pointillism of Pissarro, and if that happens to bring to mind his work then all the better, creating another potential layer of meaning.